Breaking Away to Fight for the Day
by Cursed.Saphire.Hart
Summary: Rose had always known she and her family were different from the rest of the flock, the question wasn't whether she could fight and break away from the flock, it was whether she was willing to. To trade a warm home for a life of uncertainty outside the walls, if those were her options, she would rather charge towards the jaws of the beasts. She was a warrior, it was in her blood.


"Rose..."

A voice called out my name.

"Rose honey..."

I looked up from the mess of wooden blocks before me. Before me stood my father, a man as tall as a tree, and as wide as a bolder, with hands like the paws of a bear. He had curly mud brown hair, with eyes to match, freckles dotting his face, along with a short haired beard with cover his jaw and upper lip. His hands were warm and gentle as they lifted me from my spot.

"My strong girl," he told me in a warm, proud voice. "You'll grow up to be a great warrior someday," he told me as I was seated in his lap. Mother came in but a moment later, carrying my little sister Sophie in one arm, and the other was an old journal with the symbol of the wolf and the alder tree on the cover. It was time for another reading. Normally a 5 year old would pass the days in ignorance, within the walls of the world, playing games with other children or fiddling with toys, but our family reassured that we would be the exception.

The 12 journals were written, each marched with the 12 animals and trees of the celtic birth signs, created for the reason of keeping our family free, our history and heritage alive. The clans of Dubhthach and Agnarasson united over 100 years ago under the truce that they could continue their legacies, too stubborn to just let future generations forget due to the military's say so, and so the journals were written and passed down from parent to first born child, or so the story went.

My mother, a petite woman with long straight black hair and chestnut brown eyes, married into the family, while my father was the firstborn of 3 boys. My mothers voice was soothing and calm, she rarely ever yelled, and every time she'd read from the journal, Sophie would fall asleep halfway through. I loved the stories, even though at a young age I rarely understood what was going on.

The reading expanded as long as it usually did, and it wasn't long before mother and father went back to work in the bakery, and the journal was hidden away once again. Both me and Sophie were taken down to the bakery, and seated in a little corner with a rug so mother could keep her eye on us, and so another day continued, leaving me a 5 year old, and my 3 year old sister to watch customers come and go, and the day went on, in a ignorant sort of bliss.

As the days passed, things rarely changed, some days father and mother would close up shop to walk us around town. Sometimes it was just to walk and get outside, others we would be gone for days at a time to visit a relative's.

Often when I was at a relative's house, I would watch my other cousins closely, a great many of them grew to be huge even at a young age. Some would train and exercise to become strong, some were clever and read a lot, a great number of my family, trained to know how to fight. Some of my uncles or aunts were harsh about it, others were not. It scared me a little to see them act so harshly about it, and a part of me worried if my father would act the same, but when I asked father if I would have to train like them, he smiled warmly at me, "You are a warrior born and bred, the blood that runs through your veins is strong." he told me as he held my shoulders, looking into my red tinted eyes. "You don't have to be a fighter, but you do need to know how to defend and protect."

"Promise me you'll always remember that," and I did promise him.

All my life I learned about how my tribe was strong and fierce, and I watched for the first few years of my life seeing how strong my family was. Ever since I was a toddler father would take me and Sophie to watch the coming and going of the Survey Corps. and we'd watch as men and women would come back beaten and bloodied from battle with the titans, eyes filled with the terrors they had seen.

Still despite that, I envied them, for a short time they were allowed to be free of these walls, while the rest of us remained inside, like sheep in a pen.

"They are not weak," he'd tell us, "Nor are they fools, some of them just weren't strong enough," I'd look up at him in question, "But each of them are strong because they broke away from the flock. They refused to die behind these walls."

"You can be strong enough like that to some day, if you so desire."

By the time I was 7, I was already being trained to be strong, because that's what I wanted. My father wasn't brutal or harsh, but he was stern. He set up a place I could train my punches and kicks, he wrapped trees in thick cushions and even made me a sturdy punching bag to practice with. For a few days my father showed me a few different kinds of moves, and told me how I could build my strength, and my training began.

So day in, day out, I would practice punching, kicking, and building up my strength, but the goals he had set turned out to be rather easy for me, every day I was supposed to get up at 7 and work till lunch than I could stop for the day. But it was apparent I was too eager to become strong, so I set my own goals and kept to them, working myself hard. Later on my father, mother, or Sophie would leave meals out for me for when I finally noticed I was hungry, knowing I was all to stubborn to stop till I was ready.

Sophie would sometimes try and train with me, doing the best she could, however her small body turned out to be too frail to get anywhere close to my level of progress, but she was as stubborn as I was, and kept at it as much as she could, while I trained most days, she only trained some days.

"Your getting so good at all this," she'd chirp amazed as we took a water break after doing stretches and push ups. "That's because I work at it as hard as I can." I told her as I wiped sweat off of my face, and taking a gulp of water. I had managed 24 push ups and my sister could only get 13 in before needing a break, and i could tell she felt a little back about that. "But you got natural skills of your own." I chuckled when she gave me a look like I was teasing her, which I did tend to do. "Like what?" she asked in disbelief, pushing her soaking bangs out of her face. I walked over to her and gently used a towel to wipe the sweat off her face.

"Well you're faster than I am, and you're pretty limber," I patted her head gently smiling. "Plus you're pretty good at those needlepoint designs grandmother teaches you." Sophie smiled and hugged me tight, I could tell she was starting to feel better about herself. Me and my sister had fairly opposing personalities, but still, our relationship was strong, I dunno if it was because we were so much more different than the rest of the flock, or because that's how it's meant to be between siblings, and I didn't care. We're family after all.

As the days passed, by the time I was 13, I noticed how I would train till my muscles ached and my bones felt like they would break if I went on, I trained till my feet and hands would swell, I trained to the point I would pass out in the forest where I trained. It was than I realised father had trusted me to carry myself, to push past a person's expectations of me and what I could be capable of. He trusted me to become strong on my own, and stand on my own two feet.

I know I must have worried mother by working myself so hard, but I knew if I wanted to be a scout and fight off the titans, I needed to be strong enough, maybe stronger so our family could return to the home land.

One day, on a day I let myself rest from the training, I gently combed my fingers through my sister's black hair which fell slightly past her shoulders, weaving it a waterfall braid,"Sister," she asked staying still for me, "Will I ever be strong? Or will I always be a runt?" I paused for a moment, "I'm sure you can be strong, if you work hard enough." I told her tieing the braids together with a ribbon. "You train with me sometimes, I'm sure that's enough for now." She turned around to face me, looking at me with sad, mismatched eyes.

"Am I a bother to you..?" I was slightly stunned when she asked, "Why would you say that?" and she covered her blue eye with one hand, other kids made fun of her for having one blue eye and one brown, "You always have to come save me..." I hugged her close,"Of course not, I'm the eldest, it's my job to look after you." She sighed softly, "It's not your fault those bullies can't see the beauty of your eyes," I tickled her sides making her shriek and giggle, "Or maybe they're just jealous of how pretty they are."

A warrior, I had yet to learned what that really meant in my early years, it wasn't until I was 16 years old that I found out the real meaning behind that title.

That's when it happened, the sky seemed to turn a brilliant red, the peaceful world of the flock was shattered when the wolves found their way into the pen, and so the slaughter began. People were running about like frightened sheep as mother and father started to pack what we needed into carriage that would be driven by father's merchant friend, and I rushed off through the panic to find my sister who had been gathering flowers before the panic started.

Our bakery was very close to the inner gate, I ran as fast as I could, I was running on adrenaline, my training made me faster than the people who were aimless from fear, if what was said was true, I had no doubt that the inner gate would be broken too, I had to find her.

I felt relieved when Sophie came into view. I pulled her petite body close to mine, without hesitation, I lifted her up and ran as quickly as possible. But for a moment, time seemed to stand still, I could hear the screaming get louder as the air echoed with the sound of giant thundering footsteps, and before I knew it, the inner wall was broken through as the armored rammed through it like a rampaging bull through a wood fence. He did it with so little effort.

I don't know why I stopped, was I stunned, was I too scared to move? Or was the reason I couldn't move, why my heart was beating so fast, because I was amazed by the armored cover giant befor me. I took in every detail of the titan, from the organic armor covering his body, to his bright yellow eyes that reminded me of burning ambers. At that moment, I knew for a fact that the titan was the embodiment of the warrior spirit my father had helped me train to be, and something told me that I would see that titan again, someday.

I watched as the titan stood and turned, but not a moment later, my father rushed in, pulling both me and my sister away, but as I was carried to the carriage, I watched as the first titan wandered in. From there we rode the horse drawn carriage to the next wall, hoping for safety. After getting off the carriage, we went to find our relatives to see if the could help us, but as we were walking through the crowd of people, something happened.

And before we knew what happened, me and Sophie woke up in a nearby forest, with no memory of how we got there, or why we had been there. A kind man, who name I learned was Erwin Smith found us and took us back to our parents, I was grateful to him. But the first night was tough, people were still unsettled, as they should be. While the other refugees stayed in a shelter, we stayed with a relative of ours, Sophie constantly woke up screaming, and the rest of the night she couldn't sleep. Mother held her the whole night, as father paced back and forth worried, while I could only think about the titan I had seen. I spent the whole night drawing him, his image imprinted in my mind.

The relatives we were staying with, uncle Angus and aunt Eleanor had well enough paying jobs to help support us, still this seemed tough for everyone, especially the refugees. Time were getting tough, an the military was little to no help for a number of reasons, a man from the military police once tried to pull mother away, saying if she needed a job he had something 'special' for her, but father intervened shouting at him, and a riot nearly broke out against them all, if I didn't hate the MPs before, I did at that moment.

After a few weeks, it got to the point me and Sophie had to make a choice, the fields or the military, and despite our mother's attempts to stop us, one way or another, I knew things were going to keep turning sour as people started to loose hope. It wasn't long before the carriages to take those who sign up for the training camp arrived, me and my sister said our goodbyes, and father entrusted me with the journal,"Be safe, my strong girl," he kissed my forehead, "And my little fawn," he kissed Sophie's, I could tell she was holding back the tears, trying to be brave. Mother held us tight as she whispered a prayer to us, "Beidh tú a bheith i mo chroí, till gcasfar le chéile sinn arís, mo breá." and we repeated it with just as much love before parting and climbing into the carriage with the other's who were going.

We were given our uniforms, and told where to go. The training camp was as I thought, nothing fancy with only what was needed. as well as a drill sergeant to scream in your face. I couldn't keep myself from mouthing off to him when he was being too harsh on Sophie, who surprisingly took it like a champ, while I ended up running laps till sundown.

As I ran laps I watched as a carriage full of drop outs made it's way out of the training camp, a part of me hoped Sophie was on it, I couldn't help but worry that this camp would break her. But still I felt relieve when I saw her on the porch of the dining hall, waiting for me with a roll of bread and an apple in her hands. It made me thing of the days she would bring me my lunch while I was training.

By the time my punishment was over, I walked over to Sophie, breathless and tired.

"Not the best person to mouth off to sister..." She sighed and held out a canteen of water and some black tea bread. I just groaned and accepted the food and water, after wards we went to bed to end our first day of training.

The girls bunks was a lot closer together than I had first thought, but it was nice that me and Sophie had beds right next to one another. However, like always, it was apparent we still weren't like the others of the flock, as the girls we roomed with gossiped and giggled like hens in a hen house the reality of how things were was all to real. Only a few of us really knew what if meant to be warriors of man kind, and most of those girls had no idea what was in store for them, I could tell, our three years was going to be a lot longer than I had first thought, what a pain in the ass, is what i thought when i went to sleep.

On the second day, we were woken up early, and would be tested to see if we could stay straight and still while wearing the ODMGear. I had no trouble with it, and surprisingly neither did my clumsy sister. After our turns were over we watched as others either succeeded or failed, resulting in the numbers being dwindled slowly, the weak were sent to the fields, because this was a place where only the strong and determined were allowed to stay.

As father said, "Humankind is a flock of sheep, the walls are a pen, and titans are the wolves, in order to fight back, you have to break away from the flock."

As time began to pass, both me and Sophie grew accustom to getting up early and starting training. I excelled in combat training, something no one could beat me in and using my pairing blades while flying through the air like a hawk before slicing the weak point of the mock titans. Weather it was hiking through the woods in the rain and struggling not to slip in the mud, or surviving a night in the woods looking out for my group, I plowed through anything thrown at me to break away from the flock.

But than one day, the news came.

Our letters to our parents were like clockwork, and we were always excited to hear from them, until...

"Sophie!" I shouted rushing over to her happily, "Sophie! Did The Letter Come!?" I asked excitedly, but the excitement began to fade, when I saw the mournful look in her eyes. I saw that she had a letter gripped in her hands, at first I tried to ignore the feeling of dread swelling inside me, "What is it...?" I asked trying to keep my smile, "What's wrong...?" I was so afraid to know.

"Rose..." she choked out, and before I knew it, she broke down before me crying, screaming in agony, like her heart was being ripped from her chest, and that's when I knew the worst had happened. During the attempt at reclaiming wall Maria, our parents were slain by titans, like sheep to the slaughter.

That very night, we both sad upon the roof of the girls cabin looking at the night sky, we were both cried out, and too tired to even sleep. It was quiet, the air was cool and the only sound was the wind and the bugs as the moon shone down on us. How long had it been since we last looked up at the stars? I thought quietly, and I remembered how father and mother would take us up to the roof so we could look at the sky when the night was clear, a lot like that night.

"Now more than ever, we have to keep living," I told Sophie, but she didn't respond, she just stared down at the ground, "We have to break away from the flock," I stood up and pulled Sophie to her feet, "Promise me we'll outlive this war, we have to do what father and mother couldn't. Promise me." I needed to hear that promise, whether or not we had family, I needed to know my little sister would be by my side. Sophie put on a stern face, standing on her own two feet, "I promise," she nodded, "We'll both out live this war."

From then on, I saw a change in my little sister, the little fawn was finding her footing, and forcing herself to stand on her own two feet, and the two of us trained side by side, helping one another like we had always done, fighting our way to the top as much as we could. We made friends during our time as trainees cadets, we let ourselves have our fun when we could allow it, we even lost a few comrades on our way to becoming soldiers, but when the day of graduation finally came around. I placed 1st in my class, while Sophie managed 10th, our hard work paid off, and we were finally soldiers.

"Rose! You're one of the top ten! You can join us in the Military Police!" Genevieve, an old bunk mate of mine shouted. "You've seen the titans! How can you possibly choose the Scouts!?" Needless to say she was in the top ten too, ranking 9th in class.

"Gene, I have to be in the scouts, I need to help end this war," I told her, hoping I wouldn't lose my cool. "But you're the top of the class!" Christopher joined in, "I don't care! You guys can follow the flock if you want, but I'm not going to hide!" I shouted resisting the urge to punch him, he had a bad habit of making me wanna hit him.

"I'm not going to wait for the wolves to find their way into the pen again," I spat angry, I had always liked these two, but it pissed me off when they tried to discourage me from my goal, "I'm going to break away from the flock and fight back, feel free to hide away though," I turned and walked away from them as Sophie followed me.

Our drill sergeant gave a speech, and then we were sent off to choose our regiments. Me and Sophie walked to where those who were going to the Scouts lined up.

I could tell Sophie was nervous, to be honest so was I, just a little. I watched as Erwin Smith, a man I hadn't seen in 3 years, but could recognize a mile away walked onto the stage set up before us, accompanied by a few other scouts. He was still as dashing as I had remembered, his voice echoed through the air as he let out a intimidating speech, and when it was over, the other's were free to leave, as well as...

"Sophie..."

She looked back at me, her face scarlet and near tears, her fists clenched at her sides, "I'm sorry..." she choked out, trying not to cry, "I can't... I can't break away...f-from the flock," I smiled softly at her, I knew she was scared from the beginning, I could see it in her eyes, but I wasn't any less proud of how far she had come, "It's ok," I told her as I kissed her forehead, her hair had grown a lot longer, her bangs hanging in her face, "It's ok, you just be safe..." she nodded slowly before running away, so I wouldn't see her cry. Letting out a sigh as she disappeared into the crowed I looked at my braid, my hair had gotten longer too after all. I undid the braid and pulled my hair back into a messy ponytail, I had to keep my hair back if I was going to fight the titans after all.

Once all those who were too afraid to be a scout left, with everyone left, I turned around and saluted to the crest of the Scout Regiment, I knew as I was standing there, that I could give my heart to humanity, I knew I could fight back, and I was no longer a part of the sheep flock, but I was a part of a flock of hawks, willing to fight the wolves on the other side of the pen.


End file.
